Thriller Genre Conventions Analysis

A genre is a style or category of art, music, or literature. In this instance, we are refering to the film genre, thriller.

Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods, giving them heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety.

Setting:

Thrillers take place mostly in ordinary suburbs and cities, although sometimes they may take place in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, forests or at sea. Locations of a crime scene or police station are commonly used as they are incorporated in the plot.

From Hell

The Silence of the Lambs

Shutter Island

Characters:

Typical Characters may include criminals, stalkers, assassins, innocent victims, psychotic individuals, spree killers, sociopaths, agents, terrorists, police and more.

The Silence of the Lambs

Dead Man's Shoes

Shutter Island

Themes/Story lines: 

An atmosphere of creepy menace and sudden violence, such as crime and murder, characterize thrillers. The tension usually arises when the character is placed in a menacing situation, a mystery, or a trap from which escaping seems impossible. Life is threatened, usually because the
character is unknowingly involved in a dangerous situation.

I Am Number Four

Limitless

Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball

Titles:

Titles allow the audience to instantly recognize the film genre. Often, titles will be in the same font in order to be continuous and for it to be aesthetically pleasing for the audience. The style of titles are often square and very easy to read.

Shutter Island

Children of  Men

Inception

Props:

Props such us weapons and guns are used frequently. Props within the scene aid with the narrative of the film and can provide information about the characters personality. Guns are conventionally used within Thrillers as these symbolize danger and terror therefore, creating suspense and tension.

I Am Number Four

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The A-Team

Lighting and Colour: 

Thrillers conventionally use low-key lighting in order to create a dark or sombre atmosphere. This creates tension as the audience are unaware of what could be happening in the surrounding of the character. Additionally, low-key lighting or extreme-low-key lighting can create a dark and menacing atmosphere to a scene.

From Hell

Buried

The Silence of the Lambs

Sound:

Thrillers feature the use of elements such as ambient sound in order to increase tension and panic within the situation. Scream incorporates the use of asynchronous background through the girls screaming when the titles appear which allows the audience to instantly recognize the nature of the film genre. Whereas Borgman uses silence to build tension and suspense and harsh dietetic sounds of grinding metal to shock the audience. 

Camerawork:

Thriller films conventionally adapt the use of different types of camerawork to demonstrate an immediate change in the situation. Shot types such as a: Canted angle, Close-up, Wide Shot, Two-Shot and Wide-shot demonstrate the different situations. Close-up shots show the key features of the subject within the scene. This is used to emphasize the characters key details and expressions, therefore showing their emotions towards what is happening. The two-shot is used in order to establish a relationship or connection between the two characters.

The Silence of the Lambs

Limitless

Buried

Editing:

A thriller  will include lots of jump cuts due to there lots of events happening that the audience is unaware of but is essential for the film to make sense. Cross cutting is a key point in editing as it is used to build suspense which is essential for a thriller, long takes are used for the same reason. Additionally, shot/reverse shot and over the shoulder shots are used to emphasize how the protagonist and antagonist may be in close proximity to one another and there may be a threat for the protagonist. Continuity editing is used to help the audience understand the film better. 

Audience Response:

Thrillers generally keep the audience on the "edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax. Suspense gives the viewer a feeling of pleasurable fascination and excitement mixed with anticipation and tension. These develop from unpredictable, mysterious events during the narrative, which make the audience think about the outcome of certain actions. Suspense builds in order to make the final moments the most memorable. The suspense in a story keeps the person hooked to watching more until the climax is reached.
An audience experiences suspense when they expect something bad to happen and have a superior perspective on the events, yet they are powerless to intervene to prevent it from happening. Suspense in thrillers is often used with with hope and fear - the hope that things will turn out all right for the protagonists in the story, and the fear that they may not.